Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Well, that (unfortunately) sums it up, doesn’t it?

How about you?

Are you in a job you don’t love because of fear you won’t be able to make it on your own?

And then resenting your boss for your own predicament?

Not a good idea.

That would fall into the “being a Victim” mode psychologists and philosophers alike establish is NOT where you want to play.

As T. Harv Eker says in his inspiring and practical (and surprisingly funny) book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (see Notes): “You can be a victim or you can be rich, but you can’t be both. Listen up! Every time, and I mean every time, you blame, justify, or complain, you are slitting your financial throat.”

Do you have a dream that’s being stymied by some fear?

If so, you might want to think about these questions:

• What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

• If you were absolutely guaranteed to succeed, what would you dare to dream and to do?

Alrighty.

So, what baby steps can take toward your dreams?

Doesn’t have to be quitting your job tomorrow or taking some other huge step, but how can you take a step toward that dream and through the fear?!

While you ponder that, remember Emerson’s wisdom: “Always, always, always, always, always do what you are afraid to do.” And, he also advises: “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” I guess he felt pretty strongly about it. :)

Where do you fall on the money psychosis scale?

Attached to it? Avoiding it?

OR!

Healthfully engaged in the circulation (I love that word—especially when used with money!) of abundance?

Good news is that there IS a way out:

Do you choose what you think or do you find yourself simply reacting to your emotions?

Rich Dad would strongly suggest we learn to choose our thoughts consciously and carefully.

And, while you’re at that, it’s time for all of us to develop our:

Are you investing in your financial intelligence?

If you’re reading these notes, then I’d definitely say, “YES!”

(And you might dig some of our other Notes on abundance including: Spiritual Economics, The Science of Getting Rich, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Successand It’s Not About the Money.)

As Byron Katie says in Loving What Is (see Notes): “The greatest stock market you can invest in is yourself. Finding this truth is better than finding a gold mine.”

So, what else can you do yo invest in your financial intelligence?

For now, remember:

Pop quiz: Is the house you live in an asset or a liability?

—> insert “Jeopardy” music here <—

OK. Time’s up. Asset or liability?

If you answered “liability” you win.

If you answered “asset,” um, hate to break it to you, but Kiyosaki tells us that that mortgage you have is a liability.

How could that be?!?

According to Kiyosaki: “An asset is something that puts money in my pocket. A liability is something that takes money out of my pocket.”

And he continues: “If you want to be rich, simply spend your life buying assets. If you want to be poor or middle class, spend your life buying liabilities. It’s not knowing the difference that causes most of the financial struggle in the real world.”

Why is tying all your money up into a liability like your home a problem?

Consider this:

One of my favorite lessons in Economics 1 at UCLA was the idea of “opportunity costs.”

The idea, as you may know, is simple: Whenever we spend time or money on one activity, to equate the cost of that investment (of the time or money) we need to look at both the actual time/money, we invested PLUS what we *could* have done with the money. Because, of course, if we do one thing when we could have done another, our potential true cost is huge—WAY bigger than the actual outlay.

Make sense?

We’ll let Robert bring the point home: “The greatest losses of all are those from missed opportunities. If all your money is tied up in your house, you may be forced to work harder because your money continues blowing out of the expense column, instead of adding to the asset column, the classic middle class cash flow problem.”

I prefer to look at wealth from a higher perspective that includes some other important variables but for now, let’s look at it thru Kiyosaki’s lens:

How’s your wealth looking?

How many days could you survive if you stopped working today?

If that question made you gasp and want to shred this Note and/or run away, please take a deep breath. Honor the process of increasing your financial aptitude, accept what is, and get your mojo cookin’! :)

And, if you’ve got a nice runway, right on!

How are you going to use that wealth to create even more assets and to serve the world?!?

In either case, remember: “The single most powerful asset we all have is our mind. If it is trained well, it can create enormous wealth in what seems to be an instant.”

Check out the book for more info on the pragmatics of financial literacy.

For now, let’s take a quick look at the obstacles to creating wealth:

The last part of the book is all about overcoming obstacles. It’s very cool.

Some of my favorite Big Ideas:

We hit on this theme a little earlier.

(And, if you haven’t noticed, we’ve hit on it in nearly EVERY Note so far. :)

Hmmmmm…

Question (again!): What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Answer: If I wasn’t afraid, I would:__________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

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(Go ahead and write on another 10 (or 100!) pages if you need to! :)

Kiyosaki reminds us: “The fear of losing money is real. Everyone has it. Even the rich. But it’s not fear that is the problem. It’s how you handle the fear. It’s how you handle losing. It’s how you handle failure that makes the difference in one’s life. That goes for anything in life, not just money. The primary difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they handle that fear.”

So…

How are you handling your fear?

Let’s approach it like the hero in Paul Bunyan’s novel Pilgrim’s Progress.

In the story, his hero has a special shield. A magical shield. It protects him from everything in front of him. As long as he heads straight at his challenges he’s invincible!

If, however, he chooses to turn and run away, the shield loses its power and he’s suddenly vulnerable. D’oh!

The lesson: GO STRAIGHT AT YOUR CHALLENGES!!

Do so, and you’re empowered.

Emerson, you may recall from above, says the exact same thing. In his words, we must ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS (!!!!) do the thing we fear and, as we do this, the death of fear is certain.

So, what are you afraid of?

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

Time to do that.

(And, now would be an acceptable time to do it. If you need to set this down and come back to it later that’d be great. :)

I love that.

This is another sentiment echoed by all the great creators and teachers.

A few of my favorite thoughts on the subject:

Alexander Graham Bell: “Concentrate all your thoughts on the task at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

Thomas Edison: “The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary.”

Seneca from Letters from a Stoic (see Notes): “To be everywhere is to be nowhere.”

Peter Senge from The Fifth Discipline: “Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively.”

T. Harv Eker from Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (see Notes): “The first thing I did was commit to my success and playing to win. I swore I would focus and not even consider leaving this business until I was a millionaire or more. This was radically different from my previous efforts, where, because I always thought short-term, I would constantly get side-tracked by either good opportunities or when things got tough.”

This echoes Deepak Chopra’s wisdom from The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success(see Notes) where he says: “Practicing the Law of Giving is actually very simple; if you want joy, give joy to others; if you want love, learn to give love; if you want attention and appreciation, learn to give attention and appreciation; if you want material affluence, help others to become materially affluent. In fact, the easiest way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.”